The Jewish East End Celebration Society is a registe­red charity dedicated to recording and remembering the cultural heritage of the Jewish East End. Our aim is to focus attention on the history of Jewish life and culture as they developed in London’s East End and their legacy today. Our work includes the on-going documentation in print and on video of the architecture, music, literature, theatre, religious practices and daily lives of the Jewish community in the East End; the commissioning of projects in litera­ture, performance and the visual arts; and the creation of a permanent heritage centre and archive. With the changes in population living and working in the East End today we work closely with local authority and local community groups, and to establish links with other organisations whose work covers similar themes.

JEECS was founded on March 3, 2003 to save what remains of the rich Jewish heritage of the East End. The fact that only some 2,000 Jews were still in the East End did not deter us as the Jewish East End was the very cradle of the Anglo-Jewish community. It was essential not only to save the remaining buildings of the Jewish East End but to record the history of the people who had lived there and the events that had taken place there. We have not always achieved our aims, but we have had some notable successes.

We have organised numerous walks, curated an exhibition on the Siege of Sidney Street at the Museum of London Docklands, organised seminars on Cable Street (twice) Zionism, Isaac Rosenberg, Israel Zangwill and much more. We originated the Holocaust Memorial events in the East End. We have also taken up the cudgels in defence of Jewish interests in the East End. We played a prominent part in stopping the so-called “hijab” gates in Brick Lane and an important part in saving Bancroft Road library and in the abortive campaign to save Mother Levy’s maternity home in Underwood Road. We always co-operate with other Jewish cultural groups in London and with other faith groups in Tower Hamlets.

Who we are

Honorary Life President

Bernard Kops

Chairman

Clive Bettington

07941 367882

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Magazine editorial

David Walker

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Membership

Shirley Collier

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Contact

Jewish East End Celebration Society

PO Box 57317, London E1 3WG.

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Latest news

Back issues of JEECS’s magazine The Cable are still available at bargain prices. Over the years The Cable has provided a unique account of the people, culture, places and events that made the Jewish East End so vibrant.
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Michael Greisman, whose wonderful historic photograph compilations have featured in our magazine The Cable and on our website, has done it again with a collection of portraits of Jewish Servicemen and Servicewomen – many from the East End – who served with the British armed services during World War Two.
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JEWISH EAST END CELEBRATION SOCIETY Newsletter 11 February 2018. From Clive Bettington, JEECS chairman As I said in the last Cable I plan to keep in contact with members of JEECS by newsletters at least until the end of this year. I want to thank everyone who sent emails regretting the closure of JEECS: David and I were touched to…Read More

Many of you are probably puzzled that you have not heard from us for some time and that the latest issue of our magazine The Cable is the first in nearly a year. I am afraid that the committee has decided that, because of illnesses and other reasons, it has decided to wind up JEECS at the end of…Read More

A gloriously evocative, and often very funny, collection of stories centred on an iconic East End street Hessel Street. What an image the name conjures up, with its shops, its market, its cast of characters – the heart of the old Jewish East End. My mother recounted how, as a girl, one of her regular tasks was to take one…Read More